My Dirty Little Secret

I have a confession to make.....I, Erin Antoon, am addicted.  I'm addicted to torturing myself.  Let me explain.....

....I torture myself by online window shopping for things I cannot afford!  I do this for a lot of things--clothes, shoes, home decor, jewelry, and even makeup!  Clothing is where I spend most of my "window shopping" time so I thought I would share with you a few of my current obsessions.  I just want to clarify that I do not spend a lot of money on clothes.  Those of you that know me, know that I am an EXTREME tight-wad and very rarely have on an outfit that isn't mostly from Forever21 or Target.  I love a good bargain!  BUT, I also appreciate beautiful designer clothes--a girl can dream, right?!

I have an extreme love affair with Rebecca Taylor. While I do not own a single piece of clothing from her line, I consistently find myself drooling over her things online.  Here are a few of my favorite pieces right now (all of these images are from www.shopbop.com and you can click on the images to view or purchase!)

Seriously?! How cute is this dress?!? I would totally rock this to a wedding or a fancy party with a great pair of strappy heels.

Capes are huge right now and this cape is beautiful!  I love that it has that military look to it (also huge right now) and my favorite part is that it has the belt that can cinch in your waist.  While I love the cape trend, it can sometimes make you look larger than you really are....the belt on this cape would totally remedy that.

I have the luxury of being able to wear jeans to work everyday (don't be jealous!) and my go-to wardrobe this winter has been skinnies or jeggings with boots and a flowy top.  This would definitely fit in to my rotation of flowy tops!

Ohhhhh Rebecca, how you torture me!!!  The color, the cut, the ruffles....what's not to love about this coat?!?  Oh yeah, the ridiculous price tag! ha!

What a perfect little dress.  Not only can it go from casual to dressy with a shoe change, but it can also go from spring (with a cardigan), to summer (no cardigan), to fall/winter (with tights and a jacket).  I'm picturing it on a fun Saturday lunch date with the girls with strappy gold flats, a neutral palette makeup, and flowy waves. OR, throw on some fun wedges, darken the eye makeup a little and give your hair some bouncy curls and you have a great outfit for date night with your honey. Got a wedding you need to go to?! No problem...grab your go-to strappy metallic heels, give yourself a great green-black smokey eye, and pull your hair back into a soft, curly up-do. All you need are some banging earrings and you are good to go!

Sooo, my apologies if I have now gotten someone else hooked on this, but I felt like I needed to confess my little secret.  Maybe one day I will be able to afford these beautiful clothes, but until then, I will rock my thrifty outfits with pride!! 

Toodles,

Erin

Our First Home

The hubs and I officially became homeowners on December 10, 2010 and it was such a great day!  We had decided to wait until Summer 2011 to start house hunting, but the interest rates got so low we thought it wouldn't hurt anything to go ahead and start looking.  We had been looking for a few months and were about to give up when our realtor took us to this house. As soon as I walked in the front door, I knew I had to have this house!

This is definitely a house that we will be in for awhile, and start our family in.  It's four bedrooms, and three baths--one of the bedrooms and bathrooms is a bonus room above the garage.  It has beautiful hardwood floors and wonderfully tall ceilings.  There are a few things that we want to change over time, but for the most part, it's perfect!  So, here's a tour of our house--these pictures were taken before we painted and moved any furniture in. I will definitely be posting more pictures as I finish decorating the rooms, but it's a slow process and each room is only partly finished.

Me and the Hubs on closing day!!

For some reason, the only picture I have of the entire front of the house is the one I took this week after it snowed.

This is the view of the living room as you walk in the front door. I'm thinking about changing the tile around the fireplace eventually....who knows....I'll probably change my mind 100 times before we actually get ready to change it.

The view of the dining room and front door from the corner of the living room.

Kitchen!  We plan on replacing the counter tops with granite and putting a great glass tile on the back splash. We've also been throwing around the idea of glazing the cabinets.  This isn't happening anytime soon, but it's definitely on the list of "Things to Change in the Future"!

Looking at the breakfast nook from the kitchen--please excuse the horrible picture quality.

Master Bedroom--this picture doesn't show it very well, but it's actually a pretty big room! I love it!

Master bathroom.  Yes, this room was FOR SURE painted before we moved in. This room is also the next room on our "To Do" list--we plan on changing out the brass fixtures. 

Guest bathroom....and me in the mirror. Ha!

Another picture of the guest bathroom.  At first, I wasn't sure how I felt about the wallpaper, but it's grown on me and I'm liking it more and more everyday.

One of the guest bedrooms downstairs.  This one has two closets in it, which you can see in the picture above.

This is the closet on the left in the picture above this one--the closet on the right has the hanging bars and a few more shelves. This picture doesn't show it very well, but this is actually a huge closet--I fit a full size desk in the bottom of this closet. It has officially been declared my "craft closet" and I could not be more excited to put it to use!

The other guest bedroom is the same size, but with just one closet.

This is the bonus room that is upstairs above the garage.  Since Carey works from home this is his office and it is also our workout room. 

The back deck (with the previous owners' furniture and grill still out there, ha!)

And, finally, the back yard!  No, that's not our dog....we took this picture and the one above during the inspection when the previous owners still lived there.

This is our dog child, Bradi:

Well, I hope you enjoyed our house tour.  Until next time....

Toodles,

Erin

My Newest Obsession

In our new house, we have beautiful, honey colored hard wood floors.  We also have a beautiful, ebony colored "child" who sheds like it's her job!  If you've ever had hardwood floors (or tile for that matter) and an excessive amount of dog hair, then you understand my frustrations.  Sweeping with a regular broom did nothing but stir up the hair....I couldn't vacuum because it would scuff the floors......I was warned not to try to Swiffer because it would ruin the finish on my floors. **Sigh**  What's a girl to do?!

Enter, my mom!  Let me start by giving you a little insider information about my mom.  Mitzi (that's my mom) is the queen of all things cleaning!  At any given time, you can walk into her house and eat off the floors and give her baseboards a white glove test (which she will pass with flying colors).  She also has wood floors and a shedding dog so when she found out about me having wood floors in my new house, she introduced me to the greatest.invention.ever.....the Rubber Broom:

Sweepa Rubber Broom

Click here to purchase

This beautiful creation dominates the dog hair in my house!  Instead of having long, straw-like bristles like a regular broom this is made of short, densley packed rubber bristles.  The rubber bristles form a wall as you pull it across the floor, but the key is the static charge that builds up at the same time.  Nothing gets past this bad boy....no dirt, no hair, no pesky little dust bunnies!  It even has a squeegie on the opposite side so it can be used to clean wet floors. It can be used indoors or outdoors....on wood, tile, and even carpet.....wet or dry.  Seriously, I can't say enough about it.  If you have wood or tile floors you need one of these brooms!

Now, if my rambling didn't convince you, maybe this will:

Yes, that is dog hair.....don't judge! Ha!  Okay, that's all I have for today.  Hope you enjoy your new rubber broom as much as I do.

Toodles,

Erin

On My Nightstand

Welcome to the first edition of "On My Nightstand."  I read a lot and love it when people tell me about good books that they have read so I wanted to do the same for others. I do most of my reading at night before I go to sleep and my book always stays on my nightstand so that's how I came up with the name for my book review segments.

Now, just fair warning, I am in no way claiming to be a great book critique and I must also warn you that I read a lot of (as my husband calls them) "trash" books. Not "trash" as in "trashy romance novels"…I mean "trash" as in, "not necessarily going to make you grow intellectually" kind of book.  The reason I read a lot of these books is because my brain has to work hard all day at my job, and I like to read for entertainment….I don't always want to lay down in bed, and snuggle up with a book that is going to make me question everything about myself and cause me to have "I Can't Turn My Brain Off Insomnia."  I read to relax and wind down….therefore, most of the books I read are just for fun.

The first book I chose to tell you guys about is Caught by Harlan Coben.

"Caught"

I read my first Harlan Coben book back in college and was a little surprised by the book. It had a sci-fi twist to it, but I absolutely could not put it down. I am so far from being a sci-fi loving girl that it's not even funny, so I was shocked that I enjoyed the book as much as I did. Well, over the years I have read a few more of his books (no more sci-fi, and they were all good….you can't go wrong with any of his books, check him out!), but none of them, in my opinion, hold a candle to Caught. Mr. Coben is known for this edge-of-your seat, can't-put-it-down, gotta-read-one-more-page kind of stories and he does not let you down with this one. If you like a good mystery novel, this one is for you. Your head will be spinning until you turn the last page.

Below is the summary of the book on his official website (www.harlancoben.com):

"17 year-old Haley McWaid is a good girl, the pride of her suburban New Jersey family, captain of the lacrosse team, headed off to college next year with all the hopes and dreams her doting parents can pin on her. Which is why, when her mother wakes one morning to find that Haley never came home the night before, and three months quickly pass without word from the girl, the community assumes the worst.

Wendy Tynes is a reporter on a mission, to identify and bring down sexual predators via elaborate—and nationally televised—sting operations. Working with local police on her news program Caught in the Act, Wendy and her team have publicly shamed dozens of men by the time she encounters her latest target. Dan Mercer is a social worker known as a friend to troubled teens, but his story soon becomes more complicated than Wendy could have imagined.

In a novel that challenges as much as it thrills, filled with the astonishing tension and unseen suburban machinations that have become Coben’s trademark, Caught tells the story of a missing girl, the community stunned by her loss, the predator who may have taken her, and the reporter who suddenly realizes she can’t trust her own instincts about this case—or the motives of the people around her."

Well, I hope you enjoyed the first edition of "On my Nightstand." Until next time…..

Toodles,

Erin